The pantry desk
Indian home cooking has always been improvisation inside a grammar. Add your ingredients, see which regional dishes you're closest to — and how the same masala behaves inside a taco, a bowl of noodles or a pizza.
Your kitchen
Common staples
Kidney beans simmered until the gravy turns silky
You have: Onion, finely chopped, Tomato purée, Basmati rice
Still need: Rajma (kidney beans), Ginger-garlic paste, Ghee, Kashmiri chilli powder
Raw marinated meat and rice sealed and cooked together on dum
You have: Basmati rice, Thick yoghurt, Fried onions (birista)
Still need: Mutton, bone-in, Saffron, Ginger-garlic paste, Mint and coriander +1
Konkani prawn rice cooked in one pot with goda masala
You have: Rice, Onion, sliced
Still need: Prawns, Fresh coconut, grated, Kokum
Assamese sour fish curry, light as broth
You have: Tomatoes
Still need: Rohu fish steaks, Elephant apple or lemon, Green chillies
Flattened rice, fennel-sweet and topped with jeeravan
You have: Onion, finely chopped
Still need: Thick poha, Green chillies, Sev and pomegranate
Baby potatoes in a yoghurt and fennel gravy, no onion or garlic
You have: Thick yoghurt
Still need: Baby potatoes, Kashmiri chilli powder, Dry ginger powder (sonth), Green cardamom
Nine vegetables in coconut, cumin and raw coconut oil
You have: Thick sour curd
Still need: Mixed vegetables, Grated coconut, Green chillies, Coconut oil +1
Finger millet balls, swallowed not chewed
You have: Tomato
Still need: Ragi flour, Toor dal, Tamarind pulp, Rasam powder +1
The same masala, rebuilt in a format from somewhere else entirely.
Rasam or sambar treated as a ramen-style broth.
Rasam or sambar treated as a ramen-style broth.
Bombay-sandwich logic applied to whatever is in the pan.
